Turkish party leader: Osman Kavala's citizenship should be revoked

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish party leader on Tuesday called for revoking the citizenship of businessman Osman Kavala.

"If the court sentences this [George] Soros fan, it becomes a national necessity that he first serves his sentence in Turkey, and then he should be sent to one of the 10 ambassadors' country after revoking his [Turkish] citizenship," Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told his party's parliamentary group.

Last week, Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of -- the US, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, and France -- for meddling in the Turkish judiciary.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday ordered the foreign minister to declare these 10 ambassadors “persona non grata” over their statement on the ongoing case of Kavala.

Bahceli noted that the 10 countries are defending Kavala, adding that Turkey was not a "punching bag."

"They have not only made a scandal by attempting to intervene in an ongoing judicial process, but they have also completely exceeded their limits," Bahceli said.

"Retracting the statement on Oct. 18 by the US Ambassador to Ankara is meaningful and appropriate. No foreign mission should attempt to create tension and crisis between countries again," he noted.

Early on Monday, the 10 embassies in Turkey announced that they abide by Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which calls on the envoys not to interfere in the internal affairs of the states they serve in.

Kavala faced charges over the 2013 Gezi Park protests, a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul that later transformed into nationwide protests which left eight protesters and a police officer dead. He was acquitted of all charges in February 2020, however, an appeal court overturned this verdict in January.

Kavala was also accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in Turkey. He was remanded into custody on charges of spying in March.